It is time to do an epic magic trick and turn my '01 WJ into a '14 JKU. I need to pick a dealer from the audience to help me pull it off, though.

I'm near Woodinville. Not trading in, so I'm little at the mercy of how far I can bribe a friend to take me. That said, I have awesome friends, and the dude I drove to Portland to buy his Mini owes me anyway. So maybe within a 150-200 mile radius?

I searched the WA forum and found a three year old thread that seemed to indicate Tom Matson Jeep in Tacoma was a good place. Is that still the case? Other suggestions?

If I have the affiliate program, does it really matter where I buy? I think I'm ordering early enough that dealer allocation isn't a big deal, or is that wrong?

Just as important, anywhere I should stay the hell away from? Either sales or service?

Feel free to PM if you'd prefer. I'm happy to roll up votes into summary-style statistics, and just as happy to not count you for those if you'd rather not be counted even as a +/- 1.

I bought mine off rairdons in Kirkland. No issues so far. I did all the negotiations through email through several dealers and always came back to them. All I had to was drive up and talk trade in and we were good to go. Not all the annoying table negotiations...

I just bought a '14 jkur from Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram of Bellevue. I negotiated with a few dealerships in email around the Woodinville area but Mike Paulsen was the most responsive and most willing to work with me on price. I had an affiliate deal as well. I got the price I wanted. (getting a couple dealers to bid on price in email is the way to work a non stressful deal from the buyer point of view) After special ordering it several weeks ago, I just picked it up a two days ago (8/22). I'm very happy so far.

I considered buying from Rairdon's in Kirkland or Bellevue, but I wanted to stay closer to the Tacoma area where I live. First stop to look was at Larson Jeep in Puyallup. Test drive was super easy. Sales guy just let my wife and I take a Jeep out for a test drive. That being said, he offered very little help in describing the Jeep. It was certainly low pressure there.

Then I asked a guy I work with about his recent Jeep purchase. He said he knows a guy at Tacoma Dodge/Jeep. So I called him, and he invited me down to work with Troy in sales, and promised they would "hook me up". I drove out that day in a new 2014 Grand Cherokee Overland V8, and I couldn't be happier. Very low pressure, hassle free even with a trade in, and Troy went the extra mile to describe many of the features of the Jeep. I would certainly recommend them.

I bought my rubicon from Larsons Jeep in Puyallup and had a good experience with them, they worked with me on the price and got good value for my trade and they tossed in a tow bar package for my RV for free.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I ordered my Wrangler from the Bellevue dealership on 8/28. I tried Rairdons. I liked working with Joe there, and he knows a lot about Wranglers. But the sales desk guys were some bizarre mix of painfully inept and greedy. Every game you have heard about in horror stories about car dealerships, including misplacing the keys to my current vehicle for almost 30 minutes when they were appraising it. And getting a bottom line price out of them was like pulling teeth. When I finally got one, it was highlighter written on a torn piece of scratch paper. And they'd mysteriously forgotten about the affiliate pricing in between - which was hidden because it was just a number on a piece of scrap, not a nice orderly progression of epp + destination + fees + tax.

Bellevue gave me a print out of the final out the door price, along with the build order sheet. And there was no screwing around. No fighting. No pulling teeth. No stalling while the sales desk thought about it. No starting at MSRP + 6k even after I'd said I had the affiliate program. Just straight-up, straightforward dealing. I didn't feel slimy when I left.